By Program Presenter Jenn Forgie
I just returned a week ago after leading a group of brave-hearted women through one of the deepest personal journey retreats of all the work I’ve been creating and offering over these many years.
Tending the Fire Within ~ Expressive Journaling, is an inward and outward journey with Self and others, working with the modality of slow-writing and yes, it is beyond the days of the ol’ Dear Diary.
The invitation into this journey is to come in with curiosity, kindness (for self especially) and an open heart and mind for exploration. What embers, what fires within are calling? Have been ignored? Are ready to flame or, to burn out and be given permission to do so?
One afternoon we were engaged in a group exercise going around the circle and it came to my turn. I began to describe a vision I had of myself standing on a hill in a teal velvet cloak with my arms raised to the skies. As I described the beams of sunlight coming down on me, in this vision, the actual sun found her way through the circle rooftop window of the building we were gathered in and swept across my body and the floor right on cue.
One of the women said, ‘don’t move!’ and she snapped the photo you see above.
It’s this moment I can’t find the words for.
Call it synchronicity, call it godly, call it grace, call it whatever…I just can’t pinpoint the utter joy (oh there’s one word!) and openness I felt in my whole being in that moment, surrounded by these women, doing the work I truly love, being just me.
I am certain you have felt this at some time or another in your life, yes?
Joy, openness, some magical kind of flow you tap into that runs through your body, your mind, your heart and spirit and has you saying YES to your life in that moment.
There are so many moments like this for us, happening more often than we allow ourselves to see or feel.
Those slivers of light that sweep across us, literally or metaphorically, perhaps even daily.
Those moments, some quick, some lingering, where something in you awakens and it feels like truth, it feels like a song you wrote yourself long ago.
It feels like home.
It’s THAT feeling.
The joyous surprise of a connection with a new someone who comes into your life and you feel your guard lower without even trying, and your heart thaw in the places it’s been long frozen over.
The community you find your sense of true-blue belonging, without having to put on masks or airs for acceptance.
The laughter between friends over silly things you know others wouldn’t find funny. Beyond the ‘you had to be there’ funnies, it’s that free-wheeling, unabashed shared laughter that says, ‘I get you’.
The way the sun-setting light lays a golden coat as though it were offering bedtime shushes to the trees, goodnight kisses to the water, tucking the bees into flower petals before it gently caresses your face for the last of that beautiful day you just had.
I could write hundreds of sliver-light moments where I felt that yes to life in my whole being through our time together during Tending The Fire Within retreat.
- I felt it as I prepared and designed the retreat; the pleasure of the coloured pens to code and sort, the firesparks of new ideas, the intriguing human-generated prompts, the wholly and holy satisfaction of creating from my own beautiful, long-ago underestimated imagination, for others.
- I felt it in the witnessing of each woman bravely, openly, honestly sharing themselves and their truths…embers glowing.
- I felt it in the sparks of exchange between our hearts and minds.
- I felt it in certain moments as I was leading the women through sessions and I’d hear a whisper voice inside me say, “Yes, Jenn, this is your calling. Keep bringing this work to the world.”
- I felt it when we all held silent witness to the tears that fell from that woman and that one and her over there as they shared their longings and cravings, all of which ultimately spoke of love. More love, more joy, more connection.
Sometimes the words really are elusive, or escape us when what we feel is so profound and deeply meaningful.
It’s the experience of these yes to life moments that want to, perhaps demand to be felt long before the words can be welcomed in to assist.
And oh, when those words do freely and juicily find themselves on the tips of your tongues, or pens, welcome them in with your heart-song, for they are yours.
There to serve the experience, the felt sense, the gorgeous light of all your full being yesses.
You must have moments like this from the coffers of your life, yes? Perhaps some are flickering in your memory as you read this?
Prompt:
Recall a moment that you felt that yes in your body, mind, heart that this blog speaks of. That sense of alignment with your whole self.
It can be from any time in your life.
If there was something you would like to say to that moment itself, what would it be? Write to the moment, as you might to a real living being. Let that moment be the living being.
It’s a great exercise, really. To spend some time recalling these deeply aligned moments from our lives if only to remember you have had them and from there you could even entertain experiencing more of them now, wherever you are in your life.
Thank you for being here and reading my offerings.
Stay curious!
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